Initiative 1433, minimum wage and labor rules

Initiative 1433 would boost the state’s minimum wage from $9.47 to $13.50 by 2020 and also require employers to provide workers with paid sick leave.If passed, the minimum wage would rise to $11 an hour in 2017, $11.50 in 2018, $12 in 2019 and $13.50 in 2020. After that, the minimum wage would increase by the rate of inflation.I-1433 also requires most businesses to provide workers with paid sick leave after 90 days of employment.An employee would get at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked. Sick leave could also be used to take care of a sick family member.Opponents say the significant boost to the minimum wage would hurt businesses that rely on low-wage workers. Those businesses would be forced to cut employees, they say, and might even close, making jobs harder to find, especially for younger people.Supporters say that people who work full time should not have to live in poverty, as they likely are if earning minimum wage. They say that businesses end up benefitting by the boost in wages because consumers have more money to spend. They also argue that people should not be at risk of losing a job or going without pay for being sick.

Under Initiative 1433, the minimum wage in Metaline Falls, in depressed Pend Oreille County, will be higher than Portland’s by 2020. Proponents wish to take the state’s relatively high minimum wage and boost it even more, from Sammamish to St. John to Sunnyside. In addition, the initiative would require every employer to provide sick leave (at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked).

I opened my coffee shop and restaurant in downtown Spokane almost two years ago. From the beginning, I knew that the most important assets of my businesses are my employees. Caring for their well-being and treating them with respect have been the best decisions I have made. As a result, they love their jobs, take great care of my businesses and continue to contribute beyond my expectations.

This fall, voters will decide whether the state’s minimum wage should be increased to $13.50, and if employers should provide paid sick leave for every worker. Before casting their ballot on Initiative 1433, voters should heed the warning of the University of Washington researchers who have studied the impact of Seattle’s new $15 minimum wage law.

From wages to guns to restroom access, ballot measure topics for voter cover a wide spectrum of issues in Washington this year. To have a chance of making the ballot, signatures on petitions must be turned in by week’s end.

Supporters of raising Washington state’s minimum wage have turned in more than 360,000 signatures in support of a ballot measure that seeks to incrementally increase the state’s rate over the next four years to $13.50 an hour.